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No; it’s not an energy sauce introduced by Heinz that enables a human to go on forever once spread over chips. A UK university has invented a battery that can produce energy for over a thousand years. It uses industrial diamonds infused with atomic energy encased within a protective coating. Just imagine a watch that would keep going forever, pacemakers that never need the battery replacing, cars that run forever and never need recharging.

I have just had a terrible thought, Simon Bentridge who sells watch batteries on Wallsall Market will go out of business; car charging points will never be used again, oil producing countries will become deserts ( sorry they are already deserts; but very rich deserts)

The terrible thought has disappeared because I remember the light bulb that would last forever and it never saw the light of day. This is the only time you will hear about this new type of energy.

I met Jimmy Jones around 1960 although not in person and it would be many years before I found out what he looked like. But Jimmy Jones arrived at a time in my life when I was eighteen years old: a time when my mind and body was a melting pot of emotions and his unusual sound became one of the spices added to it. We never had a TV until much later in my life just a small plastic radio which I would take up to my bedroom and listen to all the latest records so I assume I heard it on one of those Jam sessions then later at the Lacarno club in Hurst Street Birmingham.

Jimmy Jones Was born in Birmingham Alabama In 1931 and raised alongside Gospel singers he had an unusual falsetto voice and a love of tap dancing which he developed by sticking bottle tops to the base of his shoes.

He wrote his first record ‘Handy Man’ Helped by Otis Blackwell which got to Number 2 in the USA and Number 3 in the UK this was followed by Good Timing which reached number 1 in the UK charts. Sadly he had no more hit records but to me these two records were classics and when I watch him singing them on You Tube along with his subtle dance routine it briefly brings back that moment in the sixties.

He was an excellent dancer and could backflip and land in a split position.

We moved into our present house in 1973, it was a new build and the street was still a building site with the footpaths only half finished as was our house; but we were being pressurized to move from the bungalow where we had spent the first seven years of our marriage by the people who were going to buy it.

So we moved and the builders finished the remaining work while we lived there, a few months later our Neighbours Kay and Allen moved next door and stayed for seven years before moving closer to their aging parents. Our next neighbors were Richard and Sue, Richard was a solicitor, and Sue was a teacher. Three children later they moved to a much larger house that was just over a mile away, the one thing that kept the two of us together was that every week we played very competitive five-a-side football until age dictated that we moved our physical activities from the football pitches to a succession of public houses where we talked a very sophisticated load of rubbish but how we enjoyed those evenings.

Our group had shrunk from around ten to just five as the Grim Reaper gradually reduced the two teams to one.

Richard was the person who corrected our age-related mistakes when we were so sure that our facts were correct and they were not. He was still working at the -age -of -seventy-four and had no intention of stopping. He rarely had a day off from his practice and played Crown bowls twice a week. One Friday he phoned to say he wasn’t feeling very well and would have to miss going out that night but would be back the following week.

He wasn’t, Sue told us he had cancer, I phoned him, he was struggling to speak and his condition deteriorated quickly; he died in just a few weeks and took with him all that knowledge.

A look far more convincing than a spoken reprimand, a sharp wit, a need to change the world into a better place, the love of West Bromwich Albion, the local football team. The love of his wife, three children, and eight grandchildren. I could fill a book with things that make me smile.

Our meetings at the Duke Of Cambridge aren’t quite the same, death takes away something you don’t want lose, without explaining why, without giving a reason.

I will miss Richard, he was a good friend.

It’s funny how sometimes and for no specific reason a thought comes into your mind that perhaps is a new one (or as you become older one that has occurred before and been forgotten)

Mine was why are we never given any advice in the event of a nuclear strike.

Of course, the answer came back immediately; no advice would be of any benefit as most people would panic. In an effort to conform to type, I panicked and did some basic maths. If Russia launched one of their latest missiles which travels at around 6138 miles per hour from Mosco towards London it would take around 18 minutes to arrive; not enough time to get to any shelters; even if we knew their locations.

Just imagine how many people would be trying to squeeze into a shelter designed for just a few hundred; ever tried to get toothpaste back into a tube.

I would suggest trying to drink as many bottles of red wine as possible in under eighteen minutes; don’t worry about having a hangover.

Liam Payne died at the age of just thirty-one years, a young man who appeared to have achieved everything he dreamed about in his life.

Even at a very young age he knew what he wanted from life and music like art is so fulfilling if you become good at it.

As part of One Direction a group of young singers in just a few years they became a global sensation, adored by both girls and boys they achieved vast amounts of money and multiple properties in different countries.

But read between the lines and the life he thought he wanted never became the Holy Grail instead he apparently spent lonely nights in hotel rooms with only the room bar for company. A room bar never passes judgment but has no stop sign either. Always pick a dream you can never achieve because it’s never about the finish line, but about enjoying the journey through life that’s important, and if you don’t enjoy the journey change the route.

While in Birmingham I spent fifteen minutes looking around BHS which had a range of decorative products, ceramics, towels, cushions, mostly things that you didn’t need to change but became seduced by small incremental changes in colour or design making them must-have items.

Eventually I decided to ignore all of them, leaned against a steel support pillar and got comfortable as I waited for my wife to tire herself out as she continually passed by me as if she were on a merry-go-round.

Then I watched and marveled at all the different types of people and the clothes they wore, each one trying to be that one human that was different too anyone else. Some do it by writing a bestseller, becoming the greatest sportsman or woman, or the next Elvis; but the way we dress has the most initial impact on our senses.

And how I would have loved some of those clothes when I was eighteen; a period when nearly everything was black and white.

It’s not very often that I go to Birmingham now mainly because it has become so busy; adding to the amount of people bustling around is the noise level; but not just from the crowds but more from street artists armed with high-powered amplifying systems that could possibly burst eardrums if you got to close and stayed to long.

Then there are the preachers of every religion who pace up and down trying and in most cases failing to hold a steady audience, but this never seems to bother any of them as they appear completely oblivious to what is happening in the world around them.

As my body is now reaching the point at which it was designed to fail I have started to look at various religions in case I can find an oppt out clause.

I noticed that some types of Bubdbhism think that when a person dies eventually the soul is reincarnated into a new body.

I thought that sounded quite promising but then I noticed that it stated when a person dies the soul passes through the head. I have now stopped wearing a hat.

I sat in the book shop Waterstones and had a coffee then thought back to when the shop had the most amazing top floor where it was possible to spend hours sitting on comfortable sofas reading the vast array of magazines.

Primark turned all that area into a clothes store. You don’t realize what you’ve got until It’s gone.

And I let Her Go.

It’s not surprising that Taylor Swift backed Kamala Harris in the presidential election as a lot of her values are the same as the vice president and it shows a very courageous person.

Most famous people would think twice about putting their head above the parapet and becoming a target for abuse or worse and she would have thought carefully about this before committing. So well done Taylor.

I am quite biased regarding music mainly because having lived through the fifties and sixties I considered that period the most innovative period for different genres of it.

However I quite like some of Taylor Swift’s songwriting and the way the videos are put together, that is one definite improvement from when music first started.

The Beatles made great music but as Mick Jager said ‘They couldn’t dance’

After millions of years, we seem to have learned very little about how to live peacefully with other human beings, and with the advent of ever more destructive weapons; the amount of people being killed has probably far exceeded that of a few centuries ago plus now we can cover vast distances in just a few hours, so now no area in the world is safe from the possibility of being destroyed.

Children hold the key to the future of the world, but that offers no protection from being killed at a young age.

Imagine There’s No Heaven Thanks John

It’s funny that even though I was always into music I still find songs on YouTube that are classics but for some reason passed over my head or have gone to the back of my mind. Came across one of Reo Speed wagon’s tracks ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’ Try and find the Spanish Video which revolves around the romance between a boy and a girl. It is quite special, don’t forget the red wine. Wonder if the Group wants an eighty-two-year-old Roadie? I would accept minimum wage.